Efeitos da Intervenção Assistida por Animais na expressão verbal e não verbal de conteúdos psíquicos em crianças hospitalizadas

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Animal Assisted Intervention (AAI) is a goal oriented and structured activity that intentionally includes animals in health and education fields to obtain humans therapeutic gains. Increasingly, hospitals incorporate these services to offer patients, adults and children, a possibility to improve their and their families well-being. The positive results of theses interventions in the field of health have been the target of desirable national and international scientific researches. In hospitalized pediatric patients, studies suggest that many benefits are obtained by the interaction of the child with the animal, among them, withdrawal from social isolation and decrease in the sensation of self-reported pain. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of Animal Assisted Intervention on verbal and nonverbal expression of psychic contents in hospitalized children. METHOD: It is a qualitative research. 05 subjects participated, in which 02 male and 03 female, from 06 to 10 years old, hospitalized at least 02 days. Co-therapist dogs: Thor, 04 years old and Kate, 03 years old, both Golden Retriever breed, selected by international protocols conducted by the researcher. Drawings and Wartegg Test were applied before and after AAI. RESULTS: In the studied population, it was verified that the presence of the dog favored greater contact with the emotional aspects and, by extension, attempts to cope with the disease. CONCLUSION: The results of this research suggest the AAI in the hospital environment provided the possibility of stagnating the pathological condition in favor of the Self reintegration experience, that is, a reappropriation of its subjective identity, partially blocked by the process of illness and hospitalization